For ordinary web browsing, email, and instant messaging, the processor
clocks itself down to about 980MHz, which allows the laptop to keep the
fans on a lower speed to insure quiet operation, and longer battery
life. When gaming, or doing anything that requires more processing
power, the processor then "wakes up" and goes to the full 1.66GHz it's
capable of. When running at full speed, the laptop allows the
temperature to rise more than I'd like it before the fans kick on full
speed. Even with the fans on full speed, the laptop is not that loud,
and the system cools down very quickly. As with any laptop, you must
ensure that the air vents are not covered or blocked to protect the unit
from overheating.

The Intel wireless card that was installed performed flawlessly. Using
the ProSET application, you can easily find and connect to any wireless
signal in the immediate area. ProSET also saves your configurations in
case you have wireless signals you connect to regularly. I did not have
a single problem with the wireless at school, home, or otherwise.

When it comes to gaming, this machine is no slouch. Using Guild Wars,
because it natively supports widescreen resolutions, I was able to run
the game at 1920x1200 with almost full detail at a great frame rate.
Because the GeForce 7800 Go with 256MB of video memory allows you to
play the game at the native resolution of the LCD, the game looks
amazing. I also attempted to run Battlefield 2, however, because the
configuration of this particular laptop only includes 512MB of RAM, the
game did not run well. Forum users report with 2GB of RAM and a faster
hard drive, this laptop runs BF2 very well, but until I am able to put
that much RAM into the machine, or another hard drive, I can neither
confirm or deny those reports.

The keyboard on the laptop is very nice to type on. The keys are very
responsive and do not feel cheap. And because this is a 17" laptop, the
keys are all standard sizes. The only issue I have with the keyboard is
that I consistently hit the "Windows" key when I was attempting to hit
the left "Alt" key. The reason for this is because there is a "Function"
(Fn) key where the "Windows" key normally would be, and the left "Alt"
key is pushed towards the center into the space bar. However, this is a
normal thing for laptops, and it is easy to get used to the new
placement.

The touchpad is very responsive. Almost too responsive at default
settings. You'll find yourself accidentally registering a click until
you get used to the responsiveness, or unless you change the sensitivity
of the touchpad which is very easy to do. The only gripe I have with the
touchpad is that it is off center of the keyboard to the left. Normally
a touchpad is centered directly underneath the keyboard, and because
this one is not, my left palm rests just on the touchpad, where on other
laptops, it would not come in contact with it at all. Combined with the
excellent responsiveness of the touchpad, it could create a frustration
for some users. In order to not have my left palm touching the touchpad,
I have to position my hand in a way that is slightly uncomfortable for
normal typing. It is not painful, but it may frustrate some for the
first week or two. Dell would have been better off to center the
touchpad to the space bar, which would alleviate this slight problem.

The speakers include a subwoofer on the bottom of the laptop. The sound
produced is above average, with the high very crisp, and there is plenty
of volume. Impressive compared to the majority of laptops I've
personally used. The only issue I have is with the placement of the
speakers right in front, below where your forearm and wrist rest on the
laptop. Because of this, it is easy to muddle the sound, but this gripe
is minor, but it does seem to bug me.

Included with this Dell Inspiron E1705, is a utility called "MediaDirect".
There is a separate button to the left of the power button, when pressed
will do either one of two things. If the machine is powered on, it will
launch the Windows Media Center program. If the machine is powered off,
it will boot to the proprietary MediaDirect program installed on a
separate partition of the hard drive. The MediaDirect program basically
allows you to play any of your audio or video files, DVDs, or music CDs
without having to boot into Windows. If you have mp3s that are protected
by DRM (Digital Rights Management), MediaDirect can not play those
files. I found that if I was just going to watch a movie, that using
MediaDirect was a superior experience to using Media Player in Windows.

Pros:

17" UXGA screen available

Newest Centrino Duo technology

Above Average sound

Relatively low cost for what you get,
MediaDirect

Cons:

Backlight Bleeding with TrueLife display

Placement of speakers

Placement of touchpad

Amount of software preinstalled at factory.

Conclusion:

Overall, the experience I've had with the Dell Inspiron E1705 is a very
positive one. The performance you get for the cost of this laptop makes
me believe it is well worth the purchase. Dell is now offering even
newer hardware with this laptop, all of which changes, and I can't go
into here. I give the Dell Inspiron E1705 a 5 out of 6 stars. What keeps
this laptop from getting a 6 is the LCD backlight bleeding and the
placement of the speakers and touchpad, as well as the lack of a gigabit
ethernet port. With those changes I believe this laptop would be
perfect.

Rating: 5 out of 6 Stars

Review Date: 06/03/06

Reviewer: Ludic

Overall, the experience I've had with the Dell Inspiron E1705 is a very
positive one. The performance you get for the cost of this laptop makes
me believe it is well worth the purchase. Dell is now offering even
newer hardware with this laptop, all of which changes, and I can't go
into here. I give the Dell Inspiron E1705 a 5 out of 6 stars. What keeps
this laptop from getting a 6 is the LCD backlight bleeding and the
placement of the speakers and touchpad, as well as the lack of a gigabit
ethernet port. With those changes I believe this laptop would be
perfect.